Monterey Park Police Department

If the Monterey Park Police Department has arrested or is investigating one of your family members, a loved one or even you, you need to know the bail amount (if any) associated with the offense (if an own recognizance (OR) release is not offered), the legal and factual requirements to convict one for the crime that allegedly took place, the defenses possible and the sentence a judge can impose if one is convicted of the crime.

We at Greg Hill & Associates believe it is also helpful to know a few more things before interacting with any branch of law enforcement. It can be useful to know the size of the police or sheriff’s department, the city’s demographics, the most frequent types of crime the department investigates and just a bit about the city’s history to make one’s communication with law enforcement more meaningful, more savvy and perhaps, more respectful. This can lead to a better outcome than if one lacks such perspective.

This article is presented with this goal in mind.

The Monterey Park Police Department has seventy-five sworn police officers, 44 non-sworn personnel and up to 80 volunteers working to keep law and order in Monterey Park, a city of 7.773 square miles and a population of 61,259 according to the 2020 U.S. Census. This is a densely populated city.

Beginning in the 1970’s, middle-class ethnic Asian Americans and Asian immigrants began settling in the west San Gabriel Valley, primarily to Monterey Park. In the 1980’s, Monterey Park was referred to as "Little Taipei" or "The Chinese Beverly Hills."

In the 1970’s and 1980’s, many affluent Taiwanese immigrants moved abroad from Taiwan and began settling into Monterey Park.

Mandarin Chinese became the most widely spoken language in many Chinese businesses of the city during that time, displacing Cantonese that had been common previously. Cantonese has dominated the Chinatowns of North American for decades, but Mandarin is the most common language of Chinese immigrants in the past few decades.

By the late 1980’s, immigrants from mainland China and Vietnam began moving into Monterey Park. By the 1990 census, Monterey Park became the first city with an Asian descent majority population in the continental United States.

Since the early 1990’s, Taiwanese people are no longer the majority in the city. The construction boom of shopping centers had declined, but plans for redevelopment sought to change that. High property values and overcrowding in Monterey Park have contributed to a secondary migration away from Monterey Park.

On January 21, 2023, a mass shooting occurred at a dance studio in the city, after a Chinese New Year celebration where twenty people were shot, killing eleven of them, and injuring nine others. The shooter, identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, fled and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Torrance the next day.

The 2010 United States Census found that the racial makeup of Monterey Park was 66.9% Asian (47.7% Chinese, 5.8% Japanese, 4.4% Vietnamese, 1.9% Filipino, 1.3% Korean, 0.9% Thai, 0.8% Cambodian, 0.4% Burmese, 0.4% Indonesian, 0.3% Indian), 19.4% White (5.0% Non-Hispanic White). Hispanic or Latino of any race were 26.9%.

According to Neighborhood Scout, “The crime rate in Monterey Park is considerably higher than the national average across all communities in America from the largest to the smallest, although at 24 crimes per one thousand residents, it is not among the communities with the very highest crime rate. The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Monterey Park is 1 in 42. Based on FBI crime data, Monterey Park is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to California, Monterey Park has a crime rate that is higher than 69% of the state's cities and towns of all sizes.”

Neighborhood Scout's analysis also reveals that Monterey Park's rate for property crime is 21 per one thousand population. This makes Monterey Park a place where there is an above average chance of becoming a victim of a property crime, when compared to all other communities in America of all population sizes. Property crimes are motor vehicle theft, arson, larceny, and burglary. Your chance of becoming a victim of any of these crimes in Monterey Park is one in 47.

Importantly, we found that Monterey Park has one of the highest rates of motor vehicle theft in the nation according to FBI crime data. This is compared to communities of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest. In fact, your chance of getting your car stolen if you live in Monterey Park is one in 211.

For more information about being arrested and possibly facing a criminal case, please click on the following articles:

Below is the Google Map to the Monterey Park Police Department.